The unique roof line of the National Trust’s Headquarters in Swindon proved a challenging project. In the years since this unique trapezoid plan was built, rain had begun to leak through the mortar joints between the coping stones that covered the parapet walls of the property on 3 of the four sides. Aluminium coping was chosen as the solution and Rainclear were up for that challenge!
A unique building design
“Opened in 2005 and designed with an emphasis on sustainability and environmental design, the offices won a range of prestigious awards, including the RIBA Award for Sustainability (2006)”.
[Accessed 14/07/22: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/press-release/national-trust-reveals-central-office-plans-as-visits-hit-record-high]
“Heelis is the central office of the National Trust, in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. Heelis was the married name of Beatrix Potter, one of the key figures in the early history of the National Trust. It was built in 2005”
[Accessed 14/07/22: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/heelis]
“The trapezoidal plan… (inspired by the) …the geometry of the adjacent 19th century buildings, with north-south oriented roof pitches for solar energy collection and controlled natural light,
The building has been designed to provide a minimum daylight factor of 5% to all regularly occupied areas, minimising the use of artificial light by means of a fully dimmable lighting control system.
…designed to ensure that both natural light and ventilation work efficiently throughout…
…has already achieved an ‘excellent’ BREEAM rating and is expected to generate less than 20Kg of CO2/m2 each year.
The environmental design and minimised energy usage has put in place the possibility of approaching carbon neutrality.
It offers 76,500 square feet of office space, meeting rooms and workshops for 470 staff, plus a shop and café.
The saw tooth roof form provides an even distribution of daylight and ventilation across the plan”
Accessed 14/07/22: https://fcbstudios.com/work/view/national-trust-headquarters]
The challenge
That saw tooth roofline presented us with our challenge as it meant measuring 16 different bespoke angles to fabricate coping caps and valleys for.
Mike Catley MCIOB, Senior Construction Manager at Koddis Construction Limited, contacted us saying:
“The building consists: 7 gables and 14 valleys”
In conclusion
The installers, Mike & Jon Saunders at Kings Court Cladding Ltd, said:
“It was a great help for Rainclear to help survey this project at the start.
It made the sizing and ordering process much easier.
The product was packaged and crated really well, everything arrived in perfect condition and in a timely manner. There were no issues with fitment of the components during the installation.
Everything was painted and finished to a high standard.
We look forward to working with Rainclear and their products on future projects and would recommend them to anyone seeking complete confidence in service and quality of process from survey through to project completion.”
READ MORE information about the installation method.
If you have questions about aluminium coping or have bespoke requirements, please feel welcome to email sales@rainclar.co.uk or contact the Rainclear sales team on 0800 644 44 26 in the first instance.
(you may then be able to WhatsApp images of your unique project to one of the sales team who have a work’s mobile phone, if that’s easiest for you)